Gay, transgender workers gain US bias protection

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President Obama arrived at a White House ceremony Monday to sign an executive order and talk about protecting gay and transgender employees from workplace discrimination.

By Nedra Pickler
Associated Press
July 22, 2014

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday ordered employment protection for gay and transgender employees working for the federal government and for companies holding federal contracts, telling advocates he embraced the ‘‘irrefutable rightness of your cause.’’

‘‘America’s federal contracts should not subsidize discrimination against the American people,’’ Obama declared at a White House signing ceremony.

Obama said it was unacceptable that being gay is still a firing offense in many places in the United States, and he called on Congress to extend the ban to all employers. But legislation that would do that has become embroiled in a dispute over whether religious groups should get exemptions.

The president had long resisted pressure to pursue an executive antibias order covering federal contractors, in the hope that Congress would take more sweeping action. The Senate passed legislation last year with some Republican support, but it has not been considered by the GOP-controlled House. Now, said Obama, ‘‘It’s time to address this injustice for every American.’’

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Mia Macy of Portland, Ore., watched Obama’s announcement in tears as an invited guest in the East Room. The military veteran and former Phoenix police detective applied to be a ballistics expert with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as a male but was rejected after she changed her name and began identifying as a woman. She filed a successful complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and settled a lawsuit against the government last year.

‘‘Having a president acknowledge us for the first time in history as citizens instead of second-class citizens is just monumental,’’ Macy said in a telephone interview.

Obama had faced pressure over whether he would include an exemption in the executive action for religious organizations. He decided to maintain a provision that allows religious groups with federal contracts to hire and fire based upon religious identity, but he did not grant any exception to consider sexual orientation or gender identity.

Objecting to his order, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops called it unprecedented and said it lends the government’s economic power to a ‘‘deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality’’ that faithful Catholics won’t abide. The group said the executive order is an anomaly because it lacks even the exemption included in the Senate bill.

‘‘In the name of forbidding discrimination, this order implements discrimination,’’ the group said in a statement.

Obama’s action followed the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Hobby Lobby case that allowed some closely held private businesses to opt out of the federal health care law’s requirement that contraception coverage be provided to workers at no extra charge. Obama advisers said that ruling has no impact on policies in federal hiring and contracting.